Jessie Fell was a lot like other teenage girls in Mystic Falls, Virginia. She was a member of one of the storied founding families. Her family even had an old church from the Civil War named for them. She had a mother and father and two older sisters: Tina and Blair. Blair was the good girl of the family. She was the reigning Miss Mystic Falls and graduated valedictorian of Mystic Falls High.
Tina was the bad girl of the family. She had recently been busted for DUI. She got off with community service. She was also unlike the rest of the family in that she dyed her hair blonde. She also had a string of dating bad boys. It led to an abortion that their uncle Logan had gracefully kept out of the news.
Speaking of Logan, she hadn't seen him in a while. She knew for a fact that Logan was a player, but it wasn't like him to disappear. She was kind of worried about him. She hoped that he didn't end of a victim of the ever-growing string of animal attacks. She actually wondered if it was animals at all. When she and her sisters were growing up, he used to tell them stories about how vampires used to wander freely in Mystic Falls long ago. She hoped that they weren't back. She really wasn't someone to get caught in this Twilight, True Blood nonsense, but she did think it would be cool if vampires were real.
As she normally did, she walked to school. She really wasn't as close to either side of the spectrum as her sisters were. She was a good student, but still got in trouble from time to time. The reason that she walked to school was because she had got her license suspended by her parents as in they locked in the family vault after she got a speeding ticket for going 17 over. She thought it was unfair.
One thing that she had heard was that the school was finally getting a new history teacher. They had been without one since teacher and football coach William "Dick" Tanner was found dead in the parking lot of another animal attack. She had trouble believing that. She walked into the room and saw a scruffy man with brown hair. He wrote the name Alaric Saltzman on the board.
"There we go, Alaric Saltzman." He said. "Saltzman is of German descent but I'm from Boston. Alaric is the name of great grandfather that I can never thank enough. You can call me Ric."
He was a very attractive man. She seemed not to be the only girl in the class to think so. She barely was able to make out what he said.
On her way out the door, she noticed Mr. Saltzman was looking at her.
"So, you're Jessica Fell, right?" He asked.
"Jessie." She answered. "What's up? I mean…is there something that I can do for you, Mr. Saltzman?"
"I need to talk to you after school about your grades." He told her. History was not one of her hottest subjects and Mr. Tanner didn't make that any easier. "Do you think that you're free?"
"Can we meet during lunch?" Jessie requested.
"Well I want to meet with another student then. Maybe you can aim for the second half of lunch?" He suggested.
"Yeah, I think that I can make that work." She responded. Some alone time with him would be great.
During lunch, she made her way to his room. As she entered, she couldn't help but notice Jeremy Gilbert walk out of the room. She knew him because he was a fellow descendant of the founding families. He also spent a large part of the year in the stoner den. Her parents didn't know about that time that he had sold her drugs. She didn't like the way that she felt, so that was the only time that she did it.
"Hey." She greeted him. "So I know that my grades aren't so hot. Some of that falls on your predecessor the psychopath and some of that is on me. I can let you know that I'll do anything to make it better because I don't want my parents to know about it."
"Okay, write me a paper." He told her.
"Huh?" She responded in surprise.
"I want a paper on some local history." He remarked. "I understand that your family shares a name with Fell's Church. One suggestion that I have would be to find out the story of how it burned down."
"I actually know a lot about that." Jessie admitted. Maybe he actually wasn't interested in her that way. It was probably just as well. Hooking up with her teacher might make her worse than Tina.
"Good. I'm sure that can find all sorts of sources around here. You write me a good paper and you'll be back on track." He said. "You have a week to turn it in."
After school, she went home to find Blair was in the living room.
"Did you have a good day at school?" She asked. Both of her sisters still lived at home. Her parents said that they had the right to until they got married.
"We got a new history teacher today." Jessie explained. "He told me that I can write a paper to help improve my grade."
"Is he cute?" Blair pried.
"He is cute, but I don't even know if he's single." Jessie told her sister. "It's typically not the kind of thing that you learn on the first day."
"What's his name?" Blair asked.
"Alaric Saltzman…I really would appreciate it if you don't date my teacher." Jessie responded as she sat down on the couch. "It would be weird."
Tina ran down the stairs in excitement. She was 20, but still acted like she was 15.
"Mom and Dad are going out of town for the weekend!" Tina beamed. "We are so having a party!"
"I have to start work on a paper tonight." Jessie complained. "Besides, all we know they're sending Aunt Meredith here to watch over us."
Meredith Fell was a doctor at the local hospital. She was hard working and nothing like Logan, except for the fact that they had similar dating records. Logan dated a lot of women and Meredith went out with a lot of men.
"We are not having a party." Blair argued. "Mom and Dad would kill us if they found out. Besides, none of us are old enough to drink and you're still on probation."
"Well I at least want to invite a few dudes over." Tina replied before she looked over to Jessie. "What do you say, Squirt? Do you want some boys to come over?"
"I'm 17, Tina." Jessie told her sister. "I'm not a kid anymore and as I said, I need to start my paper."
"You're never going to find a man with that attitude." Tina chastised her.
"Tina, there are more important things in life than men and partying." Blair argued.
"Yeah, like what?" Tina countered.
"School." Jessie answered. "I'm going to my room. Call me down when it's time for dinner, whatever that may be."
She looked through some of the old family stuff for sources that she could use about the church burning down. Of one of the journals said that there were demons in the church and it needed to be destroyed. She wasn't sure what they meant by that. There were some sources that believed in biblical times people with mental illness were believed to have demons inside of them. Was it possible that was what it meant, or did they mean the vampires that Logan had told her about? She guessed that she couldn't find that out at the moment.
That night, she woke was woken up late in the night. She went down to get the door while wearing her nightgown. She was a little shocked by the person on the outside.
"Uncle Logan?" She responded. "What are you doing here?"
"I just got back in town." Logan explained. "Can I come in?"
"No." Jessie told him. "You can't just show up and come in late at night. You can talk about it tomorrow where you've been these past few weeks but you can't come in. Now go away so I can go back to bed."
She shut the door in his face and went back upstairs. If anything, she would talk to him in the morning. Maybe he would go and bother his slutty ex-girlfriend. She really didn't think highly of Jenna Sommers who was also the aunt of Jeremy and his sister Elena.
That night at the school was the career fair. She didn't want to go, but she had a feeling that Blair would make her. It was kind of hypocritical since Blair didn't have a job either. Tina tagged along because she was apparently always looking for a new guy. Once they were there, she pointed out Mr. Saltzman to them.
"There he is." Jessie said. "That's Mr. Saltzman."
"You should go and introduce us to him." Blair suggested. Jessie sighed and walked over to him.
"Mr. Saltzman, I'd like to introduce you to my sisters: Blair and Tina." She introduced.
"I hope that you're treating our little sister well." Blair replied.
"We've only had one class together, but I did give her the opportunity for extra credit." Alaric told them.
"That's so nice of you." Tina gushed. Jessie wanted to slap her head at the fact that her sisters seemed so love-struck. Suddenly she heard a noise and looked to see Jeremy and Tyler Lockwood fighting.
"Excuse me Ladies, but I should do something about this." Alaric told them. Jessie couldn't be more relieved. Her sisters looked disappointed.
"Hey, is that Uncle Logan?" Tina asked pointing to the news reporter. Jessie looked over at him with her blue eyes. He was working the crowd, but wasn't running any sort of booth.
On her way back from the bathroom, Jessie noticed Logan was talking to Stefan Salvatore of all people. She wasn't aware that the two of them knew each other. She decided eavesdrop.
"Why don't we just skip past the whole 'Who turned me?' thing and skip to the good part." Logan asked him. Jessie was confused. What did he mean by turned? "How do I turn into a daywalker?"
Okay, Jessie didn't know much about vampire fiction, but she did know that daywalker was a term for a vampire that walks in the sunlight.
"Damon and I are the only two that I know of." Stefan answered. Was Stefan a vampire too? She kept listening.
"But you're both very cagey on the how." Logan noted. "Which tells me that there is a way."
Jessie was suddenly glad that she didn't invite Logan in because that could have been bad.
"In case you haven't noticed. I'm quite the celebrity in this town." Logan added. "It'd be very, very easy for me to expose you."
"You want to know how you can walk around in the sun?" Stefan asked calmly.
"I do." Logan answered.
"You can't." Stefan responded. "Don't ever threaten me again."
Jessie then tried went back in the bathroom so neither of them would notice her. She actually had to admit that was a pretty awesome thing to do. Apparently Stefan didn't want people to know that he was a vampire and she respected his right to have that remain hidden.
She decided to walk home. She knew that it might not be very smart with vampires actually existing, but it would give her some time to think. She could think about her future and how she may not want to follow in the family business. She could think about the present and how her world just opened up to a secret that had apparently been in her family for a long time. The church had vampires in it and they were burned alive.
While she was walking, she couldn't help but notice a girl standing by where Wickery Bridge used to be. The bridge had given out in the spring. Miranda and Grayson Gilbert drowned, but Elena miraculously survived. It was something that everyone in town knew. She couldn't help but wonder who the girl was. For whatever reason, she walked over.
"Are you lost?" Jessie asked. The girl was Asian with brown eyes, maybe a little younger than her or even the same age, but she had never seen her before.
"No I'm just looking at the stars." The girl answered. "I'm Anna."
"I'm Jessie…Fell." The brunette introduced.
"Hmm I wonder if you would be able to help me with something." Anna remarked.
"Sure I guess." Jessie offered. She didn't know why she was agreeing to it since she didn't know the girl.
"You look thirsty." Anna commented as she produced a cup. "Would you like a drink?"
"You're not giving me poison, are you?" Jessie asked.
"I'll drink it myself first." Anna offered as she took a sip from the cup. A red spot was left by her lip. Jessie guessed that it was some kind of juice. "See, I'm fine."
Jessie took the cup and drank from it, before she choked and coughed at the foul-tasting liquid. She nearly dropped the cup.
"What is this stuff?" She asked.
"Blood." Anna answered. Suddenly without warning, the girl took a knife and slashed her across the throat. She fell down to the floor as she choked on her own blood. It took a few seconds before she hit the payment, lifeless.
So I decided to try something new. If you can't tell from the picture, Jessie is played by Willa Holland of The OC and Arrow (Stephen Amell who played Brady, plays Oliver in that show). The story starts with Jessie being turned into a vampire. She's not really friends with the gang at this point, but she will be later. I know officially Blair and Tina were cousins, but I made them sisters here and in case you're wondering, yes Anna drank her own blood. Please don't forget to review.
